Unfinished Business
by Nefhiliel
Summary: AU 2nd season. Mix Max, Logan, & Alec, stirring constantly. Add a spoonful of confusion with a dash of Romeo & Juliet-esque styled tragedy of timing thrown in for effect. Rated for suicidal themes/language.
1. Freedom At Last

_**Disclaimer:** Believe you and me, if I owned anything Dark Angel related, I would **NOT**be wasting my time writing a FanFic about what might've been, and it would still be on the air._

_**AN:**This is set... sometime between Max getting fixed up, assigned a breeding partner (X5 494, aka Alec), and escaping. I'm gonna pretend for my own use that she had been planning to escape for a longer period of time than she was, so Renfro didn't show her what was left of Zack and didn't shoot her full of the virus, for the story's sake. And, because a story too crowded full of characters is always hard to keep track of, I'm gonna say that Joshua decided to stay behind because someone had to take care of all the basement dwellers he called his friends._

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Max had finally broken free. Again. Plans hadn't gone quite as well as planned. The X7s, the many of one, as Joshua put it, that roamed around day and night, silent as a rock, beeping at each other. Yes, Max could hear them beeping as they walked by, barely audible but there. After days of trying to escape with the help of Joshua, and Alec not making this any easier. Days of planning and watching said the X7s weren't supposed to be right now, there should have been a 7 minute window between shifts of them, but these ones had yet to leave.

This posed a little problem, which meant Max couldn't move, they were everywhere, the many of one. She was stuck, underneath a bunch of branches, hidden from view, in a dip that made her perfectly out of sight. It would work, for now, until the shift change, but to make matters worse: it was raining. The dip she curled herself in was filling up with muddy water, fast.

She wasn't free yet, she knew this. Not until she made it over the fence and out of sight was she free. That moment should have come almost 35 minutes prior. Max was huddled there, running over the details of the planned escape in her mind, over and over again, until a pair of boots stopped directly in front of her. They were larger than an X7s boots, seeing as how they were only young children, must've been only 9 or 10, but still scary in numbers.

It took her a moment for this image to register, but this person was crouching, hiding behind the safety of the tree she was perched under. This person was using the tree as a way to block themselves from view of Manticore and the X7s on patrol. They obviously knew Max was there, somehow, although she was indeed out of view.

"452, didn't expect to see you here. I see you finally put your little plan into action. Wait... are... are you hiding in a mud puddle, Max?" Max thought she had it bad before. _Now_ it was bad. The obnoxious vibes riddled off of every inch of his being, down to the very hole in which she hid. He was loud, arrogant, and the voice of the one person she _didn't_ want to see right now. Alec.

"No, I was hiding in a hole underneath a tree, but it started raining. What the hell are you doing here?" She hissed, looking up at him, who was not dressed in his Manticore attire, but had somehow acquired a set of black cloths to help him blend in with the darkness.

"I could ask you the same question. But hey, you saw me and the guard, we're on good trading detail with each other. You don't think I get all that from inside Manticore, do you?" he asked, not bothering to try and keep his voice low.

"Shh!! Be quiet, for pete's sake!!" she hissed at him, her hand flying up and grabbing onto his shirt, pulling him a bit closer, "Want to get us _both_ thrown back in there!?" she asked him in a very quiet but very angry voice.

"Oh come on Maxie, do you really think the guard is gonna throw me in solitary when he sees the cigar's I swiped for him? It's Alan on duty right now, unless something drastic, like say... missing X Series, popped up, and he's seen me before out here. I just don't want the cameras to pick up one me. Those are something he can't be lenient on." He said, shrugging and pulling himself away from her grasp.

Max's breathing had gotten a little faster, she didn't trust him. She didn't trust him not to be a spy, not so be secretly signalling someone of her escape. "Move!" she hissed, "I'm leaving, if there are no X7s in the area, which obviously they aren't or they'd have been on to you by now with how loud you are, then there's nothing stopping me from getting out." she said, starting to drag her mud covered soggy body from out of her hole.

"Whoa, there girly. You think I'm just going to let you leave here, without pretending like I didn't see you? Where's that big furry friend of yours, anyway? I would've thought he'd want to come to." he said, moving to get in her way again.

"Joshua..." her voice trailed off, full of concern for her furry friend, "How do you know about him!?" she hissed, now crouched, dripping, in front of him. "Have you been trailing me, 494?" this was probably the only time you'd ever hear here calling someone by their Manticore-given designation, and it was only because he was _severely_ annoying her.

"Let's just say... the other night, when were supposed to be breeding, you weren't there, and I just happened to notice a hole in the wall under your bed. You should be more careful on the hours you pick to leave." He said, still sitting on his heels in attempt to stay dry.

"Whatever, that's over with, behind us. Now move it so I can go, Joshua can take care of himself, he always has, he always will." she hissed, pushing him over backwards into the mud and standing up.

Alec, lying flat on his back in the increasingly sticky mud, began to laugh, loudly, and hysterically. His eyes were fixed on her, and she knew exactly why he was laughing. It was because, from her head to her toes, was brown, the rain was only smearing it and her clothes were drenched in dirty brown water. She did not look very pleasant, and stuck on her face was the meanest glare she could muster. "Can it, whack-job." she said and moved to step closer to the fence. His arm caught onto her leg and brought her down next to him. Back in the mud for her. His hand moved swiftly up to her arm and grabbed onto it tightly, his grip getting more vice-like with each movement she made to try to struggle free.

"What is the matter with you!? So what, go tell Renfro that 452 ran off again, I don't care. By the time they get out here, I'll be long gone. I can move faster in this shit than they can. Especial if they don't know where I'm going." she stated, knowing very well she would assume Max to go back to Seattle. Well she would, of course, for Logan, but maybe not right off the bat. If it saved her butt, what would it hurt Logan to wait another day or two to see her? It _had_ been 3 months since her 'death.'

"You kidding me? I wouldn't do that. I know what they'd do to someone like you, ran away twice and all. High security measure, you are. I couldn't just let you go and leave me here to do my trade business without a breeding partner, could I?" he smirked at her, which usually causes any normal girl to melt at the sight. Good thing Max wasn't a normal girl.

"So what, do I have to knock you out to get out this time? The X7s can't be gone for long, Alec, they're bound to get back on patrol any minute now, if I just knock you out now, they'll take you to Renfro and report you for trying to escape." she hissed, realizing how much time they were wasting here, laying in the mud, Alec still having a firm grip on her arm.

The clone to Max's dead brother simply grinned at her, and looked down at her arm and his hand, connected tightly. "I could take you back myself, and get a good reward out of it... or, and I might add that I like this idea much better, I could come with you. What's the fun of being at Manticore if your breeding partner is gone?" he said, with a sly smirk on his face, knowing what was coming.

And here it came: Max's fist collided with the side of his face. "Come if you want but don't expect me to wait up for you, and don't think you're coming with me to the city. I go alone, I work alone, that's how I like it." she told him, just wishing he'd leave her alone. "Not like it was any fun with your breeding partner there either, was it?" she stated matter-of-factly. He didn't get any then, he wasn't getting any now, and that's how she was going to keep things. Alec was **never** getting any from her.

"Aww Maxie, that hurt," he said, feigning pain, and grinning at her. He stood up from the mud, dragging her up to a standing position by the arm. "Come on, the X7s are due back here any minute now." he said, and with one jump, the pair made it over to the other side of the 10 foot fence.

Max could have died right then. Did she not just get done telling him, less than 2 minutes before, that the X7s were bound to be back soon? But did he listen? NOOO. Of course not, Hot-head pretty boy didn't want to listen to her, just because she'd had experience running from these things. And now here she was, being dragged off into the darkness of the forest by the one person she would rather be as far away from as possible... except for maybe Renfro, but that was another story. He still hadn't let go, and he had taken off running as fast as possible as soon as they landed on the other side of the fence.

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_Yup, my first attempt at Dark Angel fiction, lol. I just spent my weeklong spring break watching the entire series, and got inspiration. Read, review, comment, criticize, flame, do what you will. Any comments will help me improve. I have more waiting to get posted, but I'm not going to post it if I think people won't like it. _


	2. Blackout

_**Disclaimer:** Once upon a time, there was this little girl, who sat at her computer and typed up a Dark Angel fic. Her penname was Nefhiliel, and boy, did she wish she owned the rights to the show... unfortunately it wasn't so._

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After about a mile of running and slipping on the wet, muddy terrain, Max finally stopped him. "Let go of me, Alec!!" She said and ripped her arm free from his grasp, hating him with every molecule of her soul.

"Careful, 452, you'll knock us both over, with that welcoming attitude of yours, just radiating off of you." he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes and trying to grab for her arm again.

"Oh yeah, because you are just SUCH a ray of sunshine, yourself, 494!!" she said distastefully and jumped back a few feet, right onto the edge of a slippery slope. Alec's arm reached out and grabbed onto hers and pulled her forward before she could knock much of the bank loose. "Let go of me!!" she nearly screamed at him and freed herself as quickly as possible.

"Look, do you want my help, or not? Just where do you think you're going? I'm the one that knows their way around in these woods, not you. I mean I DO get out here every weekend to replenish my trading supplies." he said, folding his arms and shaking his head, moving forward.

"No one asked you to come, Alec, especially not me. So be my guest, and go where you think is best. I've escaped out of here and not been found once before, only I was 9 at the time, so please, tell me I don't know how to hide from them now." She said and started off, wanting to get Manticore as far behind her as possible, again. She pushed her way past Alec, who grabbed her left hand with his vice-like grip once more, and took off full-speed ahead again, towards the sound of vehicles, and in the distance, she saw a bobbing light up ahead. Her mind was racing, her heart was pumping, rather... Zack's heart, was pumping and beating quickly in her chest, and her breathing was getting irregular. "Alec... you... crazy? Can't go... cars... oh god... stop." she said, her right hand flying up to her chest and her eyes blinking rapidly.

He noticed the desperate tone in her voice and slowed to a stop to face his now ex-breeding partner, and immediately grabbed onto both of her arms, facing her, ready for her to collapse any minute now. "You okay? That new heart of yours giving you trouble or something?" He said, and knelt down to the forest floor, still holding onto her arms, as her legs buckled beneath her.

"I don't know what's going on, I've never had this happen before," she said, actually grateful this arrogant and annoying X5 unit was with her right now. "Just please, we have to stay away from the roads. By the time they notice we're gone, they're going to be searching in vehicles, not on foot." she said, and got herself free of his grasp once more, to wrap her arms around her legs and try to focus on breathing.

"Max, I was gonna try to bum us a ride into the city," he said, talking slowly, "Especially now, what with you all shaky like this," he said, unaware of the severity of her condition.

Max hadn't noticed it really before, because usually the seizures didn't make her dizzy, didn't do this to her, "I'm fine, just don't let go, please." she said, forcing herself to stand up, and holding out her hand for him to take. She fought hard to stand still, but her entire body was shaking violently, something Alec hadn't seen take control of her before, and hadn't had happen to him in a long while, not since the scientists in Manticore had come up with a shot that took care of them for months at a time.

Alec didn't want to argue, he wanted to get away just as bad as she did. As far as he figured it, if she wasn't going to admit she couldn't continue, he wasn't going to push it. Relieved, he took hold of her hand and continued through the dark and wet forest, just a bit slower than before. His thoughts were swirling quickly as he tried to piece together what was happening here.

Finally, something in his brain clicked. "Max. Haven't they been shooting you up with the anti-seizure vaccine?" He asked her, stopping once again to let her catch her breath and try to control her body.

She just shook her head, "I... I don... don't let them near... near me... w-wi- with needles if I can help it." her words came out choppy and rushed, "They t-tried giving it to me in... p-pill form, but they... they didn't tell me what is was," she grabbed onto him for support with her shaking arms once again, "and I didn't actually swallow it. They... the pills, they're... they're down with Joshua. Guards... w-wo-won't find them there..." she finished, and her legs gave out once again. Alec stayed there right next to her, knowing that she needed someone, even if she did hate him, to be with her right now.

He nodded, knowing full-well how the paranoid people could get, "All they were trying to do is help you, know that. That's what Manticore is all about, is trying to help." he said, smiling his normally wooing smile at her. She just rolled her eyes and stood up once more.

"Shut up, just keep going. Don't stop until we reach the sector border." she told him, with determination in her eyes, yet fear etched deep all over her face. The seizures never took her breath, never caused dizziness. Maybe it _did_ have something to do with Zack's heart, this time. Zack had given his life, for her. Even tho she was unconscious for the event, for some reason she knew exactly what had happened. He made her promise she'd fight them, fight Manticore. She planned on it, and saw a strange image of Zack giving himself up for Max's safety multiple times, and she never got to thank him for it. "Thank you, Zack," she said, as her eyes welled up with tears and one trickled down her already mud-and-rain-stained cheeks. She said that so barely inaudible that Alec shouldn't have been able to hear it. Max's body might still have been with Alec, running behind him towards freedom once more, but her mind was back at Manticore, it was 3 months behind, back in the operating room where Zack died for her. There was no part of her mind focused on the task at hand, or where she was going. 'For you, baby sister,' echoed over and over again in her mind. "I'm so sorry," she mumbled, just as Alec ducked and yelled a warning for her to do the same... a warning she would never hear.

Before she knew it, her mind was getting painfully shaken back to reality, back to the present, and ripped once more away from her brother, away from 3 months ago.

"Max... Maxie..." there was desperation in his voice now. An exhausted, grievous, pained groan emitted from her mouth, and her eyelids fluttered, but remained closed. "Oh for the love of... 452!!" he hissed into her ear.

Max's eyes snapped open instantly, and her lungs filled quickly with a staggered gasp. She was lying flat on her back, staring up into Alec's face. The rain had stopped some time ago, and she could tell the sun was almost up. Her mind was still foggy, and she blinked a couple times to try and clear the images flashing before her. She was about to ask what happened, when a sharp pain above her left eye brought her back to reality in an instant. Her left hand flew up to investigate the source of the pain, and it was met by a large bump on her forehead, and a faintly warm, sticky substance which proved to be blood.

"You okay?" he asked, helping her sit up, with sincere concern in his eyes this time. "Careful, careful, there, Maxie girl," he said, letting off a relieved and forced smile/laugh, as he helped her to her feet, since she wasn't staying down by herself.

Max looked at him with an annoyed expression on her face, and rolled her eyes. She shrugged her shoulders, and in her usual casual tone, replied, "Yeah, of course, why wouldn't I be? Let's just... GOWCH!!" she screamed, and doubled over. Her head was throbbing worse than ever, her eyes were clouding over again, and her breathing rate increased a bit. She opened her eyes, which she had clamped shut, to search for the source of the pain, to discover her own hand, scratching the enormous mound on her forehead. Damn thing had done it subconsciously.

"Careful!!" Alec said, grabbing hold of both of her hands, and standing her back up again. "You hit your head pretty hard, you sure you want to continue?" he asked her, while she stood wobbly-legged in front of him.

"Yeah, yeah of course," she mumbled, leaning into him for support, careful to lean the top of her head on his chest, rather than her forehead, as she was about to do. "What happened?" Max asked, she had to know, and couldn't quite remember. The same image of Zack looking down on her dead body in the operating room, pistol in his hand pointed at his own head, and 'For you, baby sister,' kept echoing in her mind, and she had to fight to stay focused on Alec's voice, not like she wanted to hear what he had to say usually.

He wrapped his arm around her, and they slowly began to move closer to civilization. They weren't running now, they were walking, with Max using Alec for support, putting her full body weight on him while they moved. "You seriously don't remember?" he asked, surprised, because X5's... hell, any of the X series, was designed to remember nearly everything important that happened to them, plus a ton of extra shit. "Okay, so apparently you were out of it because of the seizures or whatever, but you obviously didn't hear me when I told you to duck. I didn't slow down because I thought I heard Manticore trailing us. Turns out it was just a farm truck, but I was slowed down when you stopped moving. You ran right into that branch back there, were out cold in an instant," Alec explained, while Max should her head. "It just doesn't make any sense. An X5, with your experience and training, not to mention the whole... feline DNA thing, not watching where she was going, just running forward until you were out. You know you were out cold for like... probably an hour?" he asked, trying to jog her memory for anything.

"Sorry," was all she had to say, still not really paying attention to what was going on around her, "My mind was somewhere else," she said truthfully. _**Please**__ just leave it at that,'_ she willed Alec not to ask questions. Her tone wasn't as casual and tough as usual, but more of a pleading, desperate now.

Alec gave her a funny look, but shook his head and shrugged ever-so-slightly. "Whatever, dude," was all he had to say, a bit amused at her response, but didn't want to push it. "Just don't do it again." he added a moment later, and smiled at her. He didn't know quite what was up with her, but he could tell, she wasn't in the mood to be argued with right now, and definitely didn't want to piss her off.

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_Thanks so much for the positive reviews on the first chapter, hope you like this one too... yup... 'nother update. _


	3. Motivationless

_**Disclaimer:** I own nothing I write of, I swear. It all belongs to the geniuses that thought up this awesome show._

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Logan Cale was doing his morning routine of sit ups and push ups, shower and breakfast, before he got around to checking anything on the news. He had just finished up his first set of sit ups when his phone rang from the other room. 3 months ago, he would have dashed to pick it up, hell, 2 months ago he still would've found a way to get the distance, even without the exoskeleton on. But now, Logan was beginning to lose hope, all hope, for everything, and continued into his second set of sit ups. As his answering machine beeped on, he sat up and sighed, giving up on the sit ups. What was the point of all this? Looking around, he gave a pathetic chuckle, and dragged himself into his wheelchair, positioning his useless dead-weights for legs on the foot rests. The rest of his workout could wait until tomorrow, skipping a day wouldn't hurt anything. It was the apartment that was making Logan crazy, being cooped up and all. Today, he would get some fresh air.

As he wheeled away, towards his bedroom, he caught the last of the message he didn't answer. It was crackled and the transmission was filled with static; this was obviously from a cell phone. He couldn't really make out who it was, but caught the phrase, "Ta..e ... are, Lo...an. Se... y... ...oon." It sounded familiar, and female. Probably Asha asking to come over with more S1W information for him to deal with. Joy, just what he needed, more work he didn't want to do. He let his head fall backwards and stare at the ceiling for a moment, before shaking his head and wheeling towards his bedroom to shower.

A while later, the tall, scruffy man emerged, exoskeleton attached securely to his legs, and an utterly exhausted look on his face. True, he had gotten nearly 10 hours of sleep the night before, but that didn't mean he had any energy. He emerged from the bedroom dressed, his hair messy, unbrushed, and still mildly damp from the shower, and his face unshaven, as it had been for over 2 weeks now. Slowly walking by the answering machine, he looked down at the little red blinking "1." He stared for a moment, laughed at himself, picked it up, and ripped the cord out of the wall. He threw the device as fast and as angrily as he possibly could at the wall in front of him, which happened to be one of his many glass divider panels. A small smile came to his face as he watched the glass shatter to the floor in little sparkling shards, and heard the clatter of the destruction echo in his ears. It was satisfying, to watch things break, Logan had recently discovered.

Logan decided he didn't really want to talk to Asha this early in the morning, if at all today, so he wouldn't be here when she arrived. He grabbed his backpack and put his laptop, cell phone, and necessary hacking devices into it, and left the penthouse apartment, locking the door securely behind him. Walking slowly down the stairs, for once not taking the elevator, Logan stopped to look out a window on one of the landings on his way. Everyone out there seemed so happy, so welcoming to the world, so alive, for it not even being 8am yet. Hell, the sun wasn't even out yet, and Logan didn't see what was so fantastic about a dull, dreary day with overcast cloud cover and no sun. Why were they all smiling? _'Because they actually have something to live for,'_ a voice in Logan's head rattled off, followed shortly by another, _'Aww, man Logan, I'm going to have to ask you to stop talking like that,'_ his own words echoed in his ears. Those words, said by himself, back when things were... normal certainly wasn't the word for it. Back when things were... stable, to Mrs. Moreno, just minutes after he had thought about ending it then. "And I thought things were bad back then..." he mumbled to himself miserably and continued down the stairs to the dull, ruined world known as Seattle, where his mood matched the weather.

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_Yeah, it's short, I know, but I hate switching scenes in the middle of chapters, and I had nothing else about Logan to reveal at the moment... so yeah. Enjoy. Opinions are always welcome, so please share!!_


	4. Need Help

_Sorry it's been so long, but I'm FINALLY out of school now, summertime!! So I'm free to update more, haha. Anyways, it's a bit longer than my past updates have been, hope you like it. _

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own nor claim to own anything associated with Dark Angel except for the ideas behind this FanFic._

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Max and Alec weren't moving very fast anymore. Not really for any particular reason, but basically just because they hadn't found themselves to be followed, they hadn't heard anything behind them yet, and Max was still a bit sore all over from all the events she'd been through. Max coughed loudly, breathing heavily still. Alec knew something was wrong, something was terribly wrong with her, no X5 should be acting like this unless they were really sick, but he didn't dare speak his mind. X5s were dangerous no matter what, even more so when they're sick or feeling lowly, and he didn't particularly want to press his luck with this one.

"Hey Max, come on, let's... let's take a breather, huh?" He said, pretending to be out of breath. She just nodded and immediately sat down on a nearby stump, head down, arms resting on her knees and her whole body looked as if it was about to topple over any moment.

Her head was throbbing, not just in the place she'd ran into the tree with, but all over, all the way down to the base of her neck, right where her barcode lay hidden beneath her hair. Even though it wasn't visible, there was a pained expression on her face. She was forcing herself to stay still, willing the pain to recede. Her whole body ached, was sore all over from the seizures, running all night long over such rough terrain, and knocking herself out earlier. It took all Max's willpower not to fall asleep right here, and to stay sitting upright. She didn't normally sleep much, so what was going on with her lately? Her mind traveled in and out of focus, fleeting images of her happier past flew in front of her view, and it always landed back again on Alec, sitting there only a few yards away, staring at her. She knew he was, she didn't have to look at him, or see past her hair, she could tell where his gaze lay.

_'For you, baby sister,'_ and Zack fell dead on top of her. Logan kissed her, _'Just come back,_' and then she was shot. _'Please don't let them take me back there,'_ Ben lay bleeding and begged her, and then she broke his neck. Logan was smiling while talking, she knew from the tone in his voice, _'It's our 1 year anniversary from when you first broke in here, come over for dinner. I've got a surprise for you,'_ and Max was laying in bed next to Rafer. Logan raised himself from his wheelchair for the first time in... months, and the pair finally let their emotions take over and they started kissing, _'Max,'_ Zack interrupted them. _'She's not dead!! No Max... No!! She can't be, I've got to get her out of here,'_ Logan was sobbing while cradling her dying form, and she fell hard to the ground as Lydecker smashed the butt end of a rifle into his head. Original Cindy was standing before her, and they hugged, _'No matter what, you still my boo,'_ she knew her best friend was a transgenic. "O.C.," she mumbled, "Logan... oh, Logan!" she began to shake once again, as the repetitive images of the man she loved appeared in her vision, "Zack..." Her eyes were filled to the brim with tears and they began to run down her cheeks, silently, but steadily. "I'm so sorry..." her voice faltered. Her whole body was shaking still, dully, but shaking. Her eyes were so clouded with tears and thoughts that she couldn't see a thing. She was so engulfed in her own thoughts and memories that she couldn't hear, see, or feel anything else around her.

She was torn from memory lane and thrown hard back against the brick wall that was reality when a firm but gentle hand was placed on her shoulder. She hadn't even heard him move, but Alec was there, whispering to her, "Maxie, you okay?" As her face turned up to him, he quickly backed off, realizing his mistake. "Sorry, I just... didn't want you seizing out on me again," he said in explanation. Because Max's thoughts were so blurred, she threw her arms around Alec and sobbed into his chest. "Hey, hey, what's this?" he said looking into her face and wiping away some tears, just as new ones replaced them. "What's wrong, Max?" he asked, expecting her to bottle her emotions up again and contain herself any moment now. What she did next was the least expected reaction floating through his mind of things she could do. He was expecting her to remind him how easily she could kick his ass.

Max's shoulders began to shake more violently than ever, and soon her whole body followed. This wasn't just the crying causing this, and she clung tighter to the safety that was Alec as the seizure set in. Somehow, though, she'd managed to keep her voice steady and coherent. "Things finally started going normal for once in my life, and now it's all changed!!" she said, angrily, as her shoulders heaved in the awkward comfort of his arms. She bit her bottom lip and pressed her eyes closed tight. _"Logan and I were FINALLY letting our feelings out toward each other, Zack and I were finally acting like family, Cindy finally learned the truth about what I am, and now it's all different. Zack died for me to live, Logan has probably found someone else, as far as he knows I'm dead. Original Cindy, I don't even know, perhaps she's found a new boo. My entire world is crashing down on me, I just hope I can get back to Seattle in time."_ she wanted to scream all this at him. Her face returned to it's normal stony steel mask as another seizure took hold of her and she collapsed completely onto Alec for support. "My life just sucks, that's all," she said bitterly and let go of him, trying to just curl up in a ball on the ground instead.

Alec stooped down to stand her up again, knowing she didn't have a whole lot of time left to waste. He hooked his arms under her armpits and dragged her to her feet again. "They're getting pretty bad, huh?" he said, talking about the seizures. "We need to get you help, but I don't know what. I've never had to deal with this myself before. Tell me what to do." he said, completely ignorant to the treatment free X5s gave themselves. "Tell me how to help you," he said, his normal, cocky, care-free attitude gone, replaced fully by concern and selflessness.

"Find... find milk. Milk helps. Anything with tryptophan in it, actually, works. Calms the nerves down..." she said, knowing it probably sounded a bit funny. "Is it getting dark out already again?" she asked, looking around them. It didn't feel that late, really.

Alec's eyes darted around, surveying the area for any signs of Manticore, but found nothing. "Uh, no, it's barely even noon. What are you talking about, dark? Take it easy, maybe you should rest here while I go to find milk. Wait, tryptophan, the stuff in turkey? You sure?" he asked, but just nodded at the look she gave him. He looked deep into her chocolate brown eyes for a moment, still puzzled about her question. They were shallow, lost, and dull. Almost looked like the light in her eyes had gone out, the confident and hopeful gleam replaced by pain and desperation.

"Oh... right. I knew that. I just have... an eyelash or something, in my eye," she told him, not wanting to admit her vision was getting clouded over with a dark mist. "No, I'm coming with you, for milk." she said, making her wobbly legs support her weight again. She knew better than he did that she didn't have enough time to wait for him to return.

_'Right.'_ He thought sarcastically, this girl didn't know when to stop and rest. "Fine, but if you end up passing out on me, don't tell me I didn't warn you. Let's go," he said and held his arm around her waist while she clung onto his arm for dear life, all the while subtly shaking as the seizures died down for a bit. They headed towards the road, now, needing to get sort of close to civilization to acquire the milk.

Max's vision faded in and out from light to dark, clear to fuzzy, and it was all she could do to walk straight without knocking both of them over. If anyone had seen them, it would have appeared that Alec was supporting a very drunk girlfriend. They had walked miles and miles now, far enough away from Manticore that they'd have a good head start once Max was feeling up to running again. In fact, they were getting close enough to civilization and Seattle that the Sector Police barricade ahead was visible. Max was practically sleep-walking, attached to his shoulder, and he darted off the road with her to get out of sight of the police. Laying her down on the soft, green moss, he sat back on a stump next to her and just let her sleep for a while, knowing she'd need the rest. After countless long, silent minutes, he gently nudged her awake.

As soon as her eyes flew open, Alec spoke, "Max, we've reached th Sector Police barricade. What do we do?" He asked, looking down at her. He had no experience with Sector Police, he'd never come this far from Manticore to need to know about them.

Max thought for a moment, but put her stony soldier face back on long enough to pretend nothing was wrong at all. After a moment's thought, she said, "Just head farther into the woods, the barricade doesn't extend out that far, there's rarely any cops in the forest, everyone uses the road." she told him, knowing she'd have to hang out here and do nothing while Alec slipped past the barricade and found the milk.

"Everyone except you two, it seems," they both froze and turned to look at the source of the voice, just as several rifles were aimed at their heads and cocked.

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_All opinions are welcome, hope you enjoyed this._


	5. Over This

_Wow, so it's been a REALLY long time since I last updated. Sorry you guys for being so horrible!! Yeahhh cliffie!! Love those little devils._

I'm going to try to update as much as I can here in the next week or so, because for the next 10 months my internet use will be unpredictable. Hope you enjoy while it lasts.

**Disclaimer:** I wish I owned Dark Angel, so I could be rich and famous, but alas, I do not. I simply use the characters to do my bidding as I please before I return them every night.

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Original Cindy yawned as she reached to shut off her alarm clock, but stopped when she heard what the news reporter woman had to say. _'Police are not yet saying how the disease is being spread, but instead have put up extra enforcements and barricades to prevent anyone from leaving the city until they have been cleared that they are not a carrier. Remember, you only need to get checked out soon if you either think you have the diseases, or are planning on taking a trip out of Seattle any time this week. Please, everyone do not go to the hospitals at once for clearance, as the officials said that there is not nearly enough man power to handle that kind of traffic just yet. I repeat, Seattle is under quarantine at this time, no one is allowed to enter or leave until this widespread disease can be contained or cured, and remember: only go to your local hospitals if you think you are infected or need to take an emergency trip out of Seattle THIS WEEK. We will let you know as soon as new info is available on the subject. Thank you. In other, more happier, news this morning--'_ Cindy was sitting on the edge of her bed, and finally clicked the alarm off after listening for what felt like ages on the same set of information being repeated over and over again for days on end. When will they finally get to report on something new? After all, it was called news. Yet another miserable day in this lonely, good-for-nothing city called Seattle. And to make today worse, they've officially declared Seattle as disease-ridden and contaminated. As if that was anything new, now it was just official. Lovely day, too bad the radio lady didn't go over the symptoms again. Who knew, maybe stupidity was one of them and she could get her coworkers sent off to solitary or something.

Cindy yawned a huge yawn and stumbled out of bed and into her clothes. She didn't want to get out of bed, she'd been up late, and now there was not even any coffee to help her wake up, either. So much for Seattle being the coffee capital of the US anymore. She sighed, and looked out her doorway to Max's bike, still in the living room where she'd left it, now over 3 months ago. "My boo, I still love you," she said, shaking her head sadly and walking over to the bike, stroking it. This was the closest thing to Max she had left, and Max herself had once compared the thing to being a part of her soul. A smile came to her lips slowly at that memory, just as it did every morning, and the woman headed to the bathroom. Arriving in front of the mirror, Cindy looked at herself and analyzed what she saw.

She saw a woman in her prime, yet the once-voluminous and peppy afro atop her head hung, sagging lowly around her neck. The ex-usual tooth filled smile that covered her whole face was replaced a hopeful, pained, reminiscing smile that threatened to turn to a grimace just as fast. Her normally flawless, youthful complexion was bumpy from stress, and already forming wrinkles and age lines. Her eyes, which were usually filled with a childish humored gleam, were dull and bored, tired and lonely. Cindy saw this, she knew it was happening, but she didn't know how to stop it, not with a huge chunk of her heart being this gaping empty hole. Sure, it'd been 3 months, but it hadn't gotten any smaller. She still lived alone, and little of Max's stuff had been moved or touched since her death, a tribute to the one true friend she'd ever had, transgenic or not. Sure, now Cindy had to fork over the rent money without anyone else pitching in, but whatever. Having anyone else but Max living in that room would be worse than having no one at all.

Cindy's chocolate brown hands filled with water and splashed it on her face, her new way of waking herself up without coffee. After her teeth and face were washed, she went to the kitchen to scrounge for food, which was getting scarce because of several things. First off was, obviously, that there was a depression going on, and people didn't stop reproducing just because of that. More mouths to feed and a steadily declining economy. There also happened to be some sort of weird disease going around, it was almost like all of Seattle was in quarantine. Rent kept going up too, and without selling anything -terribly- important of Max's, there was no way she could afford food and rent. This meant that her clothes had been pawned, sold, or traded for food, but nothing too important. The leather jacket was still there, and no one but her understood why she didn't sell the motorcycle for some living money, or take in another roommate.

"Maxie girl," her mouth turned down into a sharp frown, and her eyes watered again, "I sure do miss you." She shook her head and berated herself again, _'Original Cindy is bein' a fool, she is still as emotional today as she was a month ago and I have _got_ to get over this sooner or later before it kills me.'_ She even thought in her partial third-person way that she spoke in. Max was dead, and she needed to face that fact. She rubbed her eyes and sighed. She needed to, but simply wasn't able to. It still seemed like a long, horrible nightmare to her.

Grabbing a roll from a dwindling bag on the counter, she grabbed her keys and headed outside. _'Great,' _she thought, and pulled up her hood to protect her 'fro from the rain. Only a short few minutes later and Cindy arrived at the Jam Pony doorway, and the rain had gone from light drizzling to a full-on heavy downpour.

"Bip bip bip!! I don't pay you to protect your hair from lifting in the weather! It's not acid, it won't kill you idiots to get a free shower every now and then. BIP BIP!!" Normal screamed at them as a flock of late workers appeared at that moment. Sure, that first comment was directed at Original Cindy, who really wasn't acting very original lately, but Normal had been nicer to her since Max died, and didn't feel like she could really take much this morning.

Approaching her boss, nearly in tears from her own thoughts, she forced herself to speak. "Whaddaya got for me, Normal?" she asked, face stony and expressionless as she held out a hand to ask for a package. He placed one in it, and she walked away before he could finish telling her the address or his usual addition of _"hot run!" _at the end.

Sketchy did his now usual-morning routine of walking over to Cindy and offering a listening ear for anything she might have to say. After Cindy had ranted to him for a few minutes, the teary-eyed pair hugged, and she slammed her locker shut, a hat now shoved firmly over her large amount of hair, and biked out the door. She was the first to do so that morning, which surprised them all, really, and also with the fact that she went alone. Normally the messengers travel in pairs, so this meant that she was having an exceptionally bad morning.

Moments after she left, Sketchy was still staring out the door, wondering what she'd omitted from her daily rantings that would make her venture off by herself, when there was a scream, a loud screech, a crashing sound, and car doors slamming shut. There was some quick sounds of scared voices outside, some more car doors slamming, and more screeches as a car peeled out and burnt rubber to leave quickly. Then there was silence. Everyone in the building, including Normal, dropped what they were doing and stared out the door. No one moved except Sketchy, who ran to the door and looked out. "Oh my god, Cindy." he said, and one hand flew up to his forehead, while the other held onto the wall to keep from falling over, and then he was gone, outside, and all everyone inside Jam Pony could hear was the loud battering of the rain on the roof.

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_Bwahaha!! more evil cliffies!! ahh you people are prolly going to stop reading because of all this evilness, won't you? Especially if I don't get to update for another 10 months. I thank you for reading and please review with what the possibilities of the past few chapters could include. Who knows, I might like your ideas better then mine, the endings to these cliffies havnen't been decided yet!! Ideas are MORE than welcome. This is enough of my little footnote. D_


	6. Call Back

_**Disclaimer:** As much as I'd like to, I do not own Logan, nor anything else mentioned in this chapter._

**_Author's Note: _**_The information in this chapter regarding locations may or may not be correct but everything Sector-related was based on a map found here: http:// dystopic. net/ seattlemap/_

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As it started to rain, Logan thought momentarily about going back up to his apartment to get a hat or something, but decided against it and walked on. He had been walking in the opposite direction of his car, but turned around and went back to the parking garage for his vehicle when the rain got harder. His laptop didn't need to get ruined, even if he didn't care about much right then, but money was getting tighter, and it would be just unnecessary to let money get wasted by ruining a laptop. Digging out the keys to his Aztec, Logan felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Figuring it was just Asha trying to track him down again, since undoubtedly she'd just called his home phone, he ignored it.

Once his car was started he put it in gear and peeled out of there, heading west. Turning the radio to the morning news, Logan caught a small update on the quarantining of the city, and turned up the volume a few notches. _'I repeat, this just in on the local epidemic going around. Listen carefully folks, to avoid hassle. The CDC has ruled out Sectors 1 through 4 as being the source, so the barricades are being removed on those sectors, but the rest remain under tight security and strong lockdown. Also, we've just received intelligence that there has been a large outbreak in northern region of Sector 11, and it may be spreading to Sector 8, so the police and CDC workers have increased security and safety measures along the entire east coast borders of Seattle, so leaving or entering any of those Sectors will be extremely slow going and could get ugly, so if you're heading--.'_ Logan switched the channel quickly, tired of hearing this story being repeated all morning long. He'd woke up to news of this disease, he'd taken a shower listening to it, he didn't feel like driving with this news in his ears either.

The disease, he'd learned, was fast spreading, and seemed to hit everyone who came in contact with some state workers who became contaminated with a new, experimental biochemical, and spread out from there. It caused violent tremors, rashes, hives, swelling, and high fevers, left victims feeling clammy and cold, with chances of delusions and internal bleeding if the shaking got bad enough. It seemed to begin overnight with a few cases, with flu-like symptoms, which spread rapidly into this epidemic of shaking people. Over the past couple days, very few had died from this disease called 'Seizuritis' by the unprofessional and 'Seattle's Athetoid Disease' by the professional as a temporary label until they learned more about it.

No one knew how to stop it or what was causing it. They all knew it could be cured with radiation if it was caught in it's early stages when it still resembled the flu, but they also knew that if it wasn't caught early, there was a very slim chance of getting cured, though the death toll hadn't risen yet. These people, the victims, weren't dying from the disease, but rather their physical appearances seemed to alter because of the hives and the effect of people's scratching. No information was being released as to point out a cause, besides the experimental biochemical the state military workers were messing with. One of the containers accidentally sprung a leak and got them covered in what they had been told was 'harmless bio-waste,' and then they started breaking out in large, bumpy red rashes that swelled to twice their size. Okay, so perhaps Logan didn't learn this _all_ from the radio.

After about half an hour of driving, Logan was near the ocean-side, and the rain had stopped. The sun was just starting to peak out from its resting place, and Logan sat on the front of his car, staring out into the only peaceful round thing left since he'd last seen Max's gorgeous chocolate eyes: the sun. Sure, it hurt his eyes and temporarily blinded the man, but he didn't care anymore. He just sat on his hood, thinking about and going over all the details of the epidemic in his head. He sighed and tried to lay back, to relax, but several things kept him from doing so. The first was the fact that his Aztec's hood had too steep a slope and wouldn't allow him to lay comfortably without starting to slide off. The second was that his pocket had just begun vibrating again. He pulled out the still ringing phone and looked at its caller ID. _'Caller Unknown' _it read, which meant it either wasn't Asha looking for him or she was calling from a pay phone in town, which wasn't likely when the S1W had been causing more chaos to get themselves on the wanted list.

Flipping it open, Logan answered, "Talk to me and this better be good." he said, but the conversation didn't last long. It was staticy and breaking up from the moment he hit talk. "What? Speak up, stop moving, I can't hear you." he listened for a moment and shook his head, "Sorry, can you call back once you have better reception?" he kept talking into the phone, but kept getting the same static back, along with partial muffled words.

_'-eed –ur hel-. Ah mi-s -ou. -Ee -ou- soo-. -Orr- I -all –ck, o—y?'_ and Logan was truly all-too-happy to hang up on the woman, not knowing who it was or what they wanted. Yet again, Logan assumed it was Asha. But at the same time, it didn't really sound like Asha, but it didn't sound like much other than static, either. And yet again, he didn't care to talk to her, and instead decided to take a midmorning nap. Inside his car. Next to the ocean. Right there.

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_I know, right? You waited ALL this time for an update, and all you get is THIS!? Sorry guys... writing's going slow... but I promise there will be one more update before the year's end!!! I swear... I wrote a bunch on it a while back and haven't uploaded yet._


	7. Trouble

_**Disclaimer:** I enjoy making these poor characters do as I wish... unfortunately I didn't create them._

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Max froze, well, she tried to, but she was constantly shaking, due to the lack of milk, and she couldn't even tell by herself if they were Manticore or sector police because her eyes were going in and out of focus so badly. She knew she was in trouble, and it just got a hell of a lot worse. Alec inched his way closer to her, and she latched onto his arm. The soldiers staring at them were not from Manticore, thankfully, but they were dressed up in armor head to toe, not a single inch of skin was left unprotected. Alec thought that was fairly strange, these were just sector police, why did they look like they were going to war?

"Get up, and you, get away from her." One soldier grabbed Alec's arm and roughly threw him aside, into the grasp of a pair of other soldiers, and, coincidentally, into a pair of handcuffs. As soon as he was out of her reach, Max collapsed onto the ground, unable to hold herself up any longer.

Max heard them speak, saw them motioning for her to stand, and saw them moving closer to her. Yet her mind didn't process their words, and her vision blurred so she only saw dark objects moving around. Her shoulders heaved forwards, and she clutched her knees as she began to shake all over. Never before had her seizures gotten this bad, she knew she was going to die if she didn't get her tryptophan in some way, and knew that these police wouldn't believe her if she told them.

As soon as this happened, Alec surged forward, yelling, "NO!!!! MAX!!!" and he wrestled with the police, trying to get free. She needed him, now more than ever. The police tightened their hold on him and started to drag him, kicking and screaming, from the woods toward the road. The entire way out, he kept talking only to Max, "Come on! No... don't do this, we're so close now!" As soon as he was on level ground, where it would be easy to drag a body, one of the cops bared his arm, and pulled out a needle, injecting the contents into his vein. Alec barely seemed to notice; his enhanced vision zoomed in and focused intently on the writhing Max, surrounded by sector police and guns, in the forest. About 30 seconds later, however, he fell quiet, and slowly fell unconscious.

With him contained, the 2 sector police returned to Max, who hadn't responded to any of their commands, and proceeded to drag her to her feet and take her out to the road as well. Her pupils had dilated and she'd become feverish over the past 36 hours of seizing, and her body was completely limp as they dragged her from the woods. Shortly after she gave them no response as well, she was injected with the same medication and less than a minute later, the group of sector police had 2 unconscious bodies to deal with.

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_I know, I know, I made you guys wait FOREVER for this... and there's barely anything here. Don't worry tho, I have several more chapters mostly ready to go. Just a few edits and a final once-over and they're good to go, too. _


	8. Have Faith

_**Disclaimer:** There once was a man from Nantucket, that man was not me, but, just like me, he didn't own any of the Dark Angel character credit. But, unlike him, I have a Fan Fiction story about them where I enjoy manipulating the characters from Dark Angel to do as I please. Basically, this is my attempt at making the disclaimer a bit more creative and less boring. I think I just made a fool of myself, instead._

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Original Cindy was in critical condition. Sketchy and Herbal were on either side of her hospital bed. Sketchy's head was in his hands, silent tears forming and dropping, one a time, onto the white sheets beneath his elbows. Herbal sat, staring at Cindy's scratched up face, and listened to the beeping of her heart monitor and the compression and decompression of her breathing machine. Neither one had spoken in so long, it was almost as if they'd forgotten how to talk.

Normal stood outside the window, watching the solemn scene inside her hospital room. This had been the scene for nearly 24 hours now, no one had moved. He needed to get back to work, but work just wouldn't be the same right now. He couldn't go to work, not until he knew she'd be okay. Yes, Normal cared about Cindy, she had been with Jam Pony for so long, she was almost a friend. About as close as anyone came to being his friend, at least.

"Nurse, I need to know how she's doing," he said suddenly, grabbing the attention of the first nurse that walked by.

"Sir, you are neither her emergency contact nor family, I can't release that information to you without their consent." She replied curtly, but glanced inside the room. She had been on call yesterday when Cindy entered the emergency room, and it hadn't looked good.

Sketchy had come with Cindy in the ambulance here, and hadn't left since. She was covered in blood at the time, both inside and out. All of her external injuries made her look like she'd just bathed in blood, and she had severe internal bleeding, not to mention a broken right collar bone and a crushed pair of legs. Her left leg was broken in many places: her femur broke in half, and her kneecap was split, along with her tibia and fibula shattered, the bones sticking out of her leg when she first came in the day before. Her right leg was in slightly better condition, as there was no bicycle in the way to cause further damage. It was simply shattered in many places from the knee down. Other injuries included a fracture of her skull, which caused brain swelling and seepage, and a broken left arm from landing on it. There were scratches and bruises covering her entire body, plus her jaw bone was fractured, and she had a black eye as well. She was swollen in odd shapes and places, and one could now barely tell there was a once-beautiful face hiding beneath the wounds.

"Please, we are her family. She's the closest thing I've got for a friend, I can't leave here without knowing she'll be alright." he said, desperate for some good news.

"Sir," the nurse took him aside, closer to her window, and spoke quietly, "I really can't tell you anything, but... I have her file and... it doesn't matter." she said quickly, about to say that the emergency contact was apparently now deceased, and she had no family listed. "I'm sorry, but the extent of her injuries when she came in were so severe, honestly I'm just proud of her for making it overnight. I hate to have to tell you this, but it really doesn't look good for her. Unless there's a miracle, I'm not sure she'll pull through. And if she does, don't count on her being... herself, if you know what I mean. With head trauma like she's got... it'll take years for her brain to fully heal." she said sadly, choking on her words as she watched Normal's face drop from hopeful to pure despair.

"No, no... no... this isn't true. It can't be happening. Cindy's gotta come out of this... we need a miracle," he said, leaning hard against the glass and sliding down the wall until he was sitting on the floor.

"Sir, you can go in her room if you want, there are chairs in there, but I'm afraid you can't sit in the hallway, you're going to get in the way." she said, "I'm terribly sorry sir, I can only imagine what this news must feel like, but I need to be going back to work now." she said, flashing him a very tiny smile and hurrying off down the hallway.

Normal nodded at her, and buried his face in his hands before getting up and going inside. Neither Sketchy nor Herbal looked up when he entered, and he walked to the foot of her bed and just stared. "That nurse doesn't know what she's talking about, Cindy. You will pull through this, you're a trooper... You just can't die, Cindy, what would Jam Pony gonna be without you?" Normal broke down and sat down on the floor once more, staring ahead at nothing, crying.

Herbal got up and put a hand on Normal's shaking shoulders, "Have faith, man, and Sister Cindy will pull through just fine. She will. It is talk like that," he pointed at Normal, "that sends the wrong message to the man upstairs." Herbal said, and pointed a finger to the ceiling. "We must band together and stay positive through this ordeal, and our sister will be back to her normal self in no time, man." he said, speaking for the first time in nearly a day. "If we have no faith in her, she have no faith in us, and he," once more, he pointed to the ceiling, "have no faith in her." He stopped talking and went to sit back down at his post.

Normal nodded and took a deep breath, and Sketchy looked up. "What'd the nurse say, dude?" he asked, curious and terrified at the same time. "I mean... Normal... sir?" he really didn't know what to say in a situation like this.

Normal looked at him, and took several more deep breaths, while getting to his feet, "She uh... she said that... That Cindy might never be the same...." he paused and began to pace, "_if_ she even pulls through this... That... that she didn't have a very good chance and," Normal stopped, shaking his head as tears came down some more, "I can't say it, I don't even want to think it!" he said, throwing himself into an empty chair in the corner.

Herbal once more remained silent, but folded his hands and bowed his head in silent prayer, while Sketchy was this time the one to go over and pat Normal gently on the shoulders. "Then don't think it, man, just... listen to Herbal, dude and... and let's all just stay positive, man!" He said... "We should call..." he stopped, barely daring to utter the name he was about to. He swallowed hard as his mouth went dry and his eyes stung, "We should probably call Max's friend... Logan. I'm sure he'll want to come see her too, I mean, what with how close Max and Cindy were and all," he said, as tears escaped from the tight mask of stability he wore. He'd just said her name twice, and even though she'd been gone for 4 months, that didn't mean any of them had healed.

Finally, Herbal could take no more. He stood up silently, with a few shiny streaks of slow tears dribbling down his cheeks from his dark eyes, and walked out the door, without saying a word. Sketchy looked up and noticed, but said nothing. Finally, he left as well. Since he had not been out of the room in nearly 24 hours, he really had to pee.

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_Hopefully this is more acceptable to all of you complaining about the shortness of the last chapter (which happened to be the shortest one out of all my stories I've ever uploaded), but I must agree, that last one was so short it was nearly painful. Hope this one is more to your liking!!! And a big thank you to all my reviewers with the constant input of ideas and help toward this story._


	9. So What?

_**Disclaimer:** All I own is this plot. Oh, how I wish Logan was my very own... _

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Logan was back at his apartment later, the day the phone call came in from Sketchy. He was, once again, running out of leads for his newest cyber war against the government. He was now trying to prove somehow that the government started spreading the strange chemical virus, known to the public as 'Seizuritis,' on purpose, to solve the ever-growing population problems. He was just starting to dig up a lead, a secret government file that an angry worker, the first to die from the disease, had saved in his computer. He'd typed this file up and emailed it to his boss. It started with, _"IT'S realy hard to tyepe right now becaause of the seizure buidlign up isnide of me.., I hjope this horribely experimetn went satisfactiyoraly for you. Ii DON'T think i'[m going to survicie this, I hpe you knwjo that I balme you fully for eevertything thats' ahppaneing. IF nomt for your gi8ving us tshose" NEW" utlcfra thin glvoes for protection, they din't do a thing. Theyd let the dradiadtion seeep outa and alll over our handss. I know9 already i'M gogini gto die.... I jusstd holpe it fasllls on your conssciuosnce." _Logan had just finished reading the file, and was writing out the translated, correctly spelled version, when his phone rang.

Normally, while working on a case such as this, he'd ignore his phone and just let it ring, but for some reason, after all the terrible things he'd just read about, he was only hoping this phone call could bring him some good news for once. Unfortunately, good news and Sketchy didn't seem to get along lately. Today was no different. Logan stretched his fingers as he glanced at the caller ID as it came up "Unknown." A payphone or a cell phone, perhaps? Either way, he was curious.

"Hello?" A brief pause. "Yes, speaking… and this is?" Another brief pause. "Oh," his eyes fell, "right…" he took a breath and said it too, "M-Max's friend. Hey, Sketch…" he tried to sound happy but the sound of Sketchy's voice wasn't convincing in the slightest. "Yeah, I've got a few minutes to spare, what's up?"

Logan had wandered into his living room, away from his desk, and went to lean on the edge of his couch, but missed by a few inches when Sketchy spoke, and slammed down onto the ground with a great thud and resounding "OOF!" escaping from his lips. "What? Yeah, I'm fine I just… missed the chair." His face fell nearly far as he just had when Sketchy continued to talk. Pretty soon there was nothing but muffled sobs being uttered into the phone. "I'll come down and see her, right now. What room?" another pause, where Logan looked close to tears himself. "Yeah," he swallowed, keeping his voice from faltering, "thanks Sketch. Hang in there, bud." And he hung up the phone with a great sigh. Great, first Max, now this. 4 months later, Max's roommate and best friend, Cindy. What was going on with this world?

After driving erratically and speeding for about 15 minutes, Logan rushed into the intensive care wing of the hospital as fast as his exoskeleton-clad legs could carry him, his eyes frantically searching for a sight he was dreading to find. He slowed down to a regular walk after nearly bowling over a nurse pushing an elderly man in a wheel-chair. Passing rooms, he looked in every window, scanned every face. Logan looked at everyone sitting on every bench, his heart sinking a little with each person sobbing on another's shoulder.

Near the end of the hallway, he noticed a figure sitting on a bench outside a room. The figure was curled upon himself, head in his hands, rocking back and forth. Logan's heart sank even further as he recognized the figure to be Sketchy. Approaching with caution, he sat down next to the bike messenger and laid a gentle hand on his back. Sketchy sat up, quickly trying to rub the tears out of his eyes and the drool from his chin, afraid it was Herbal, who would certainly reprimand him for not thinking positive and believe in "Sister Cindy's" ability to heal. Seeing Logan instead, Sketchy leaned forward and hugged the man he barely knew.

"Logan… she…" he took in a pained breath, "The nurse said she…" he bit his lip as Normal came around the corner from the bathroom and spoted the two on the bench. Normal was stony faced, his eyes sunk with exhaustion and his mouth hung limply open.

"Logan." Normal swallowed, "Thank you for coming down." He said, reaching down to shake his hand. Logan in turn stood up and looked down upon Normal to shake his hand. Normal just looked a bit surprised, not having seen Logan at his full height before. "What happened to the chair?" he asked, referring to Logan's wheelchair, of course. He was accustomed to seeing Logan sitting in some chair or another, rather than on his own two feet.

A faint smile appeared on his lips as he recalled the miracle blood Max had given him. As he blinked, his face fell again at the fact that she was now dead, and he could do nothing to save her. Instead, Logan just shrugged and said, "I got an exoskeleton," and turned to enter the room behind them before Normal could ask questions. Logan's mind was racing, as it had been throughout the entire drive to the hospital: through all the black-market files in his mind, every off-the-counter and below-the-radar pills and treatments he knew to be out there that might help Cindy. Every time he got to a dead end, his thoughts wandered back to Max.

Max, with her revved up transgenic blood. Max, who had healed Logan's paralysis for a time. Max, who saved his life in more ways than one. Max, who died in his arms and whom he had left behind. To be fair it was not all his fault, but Logan didn't see it that way. He still blamed only himself, even though Lydecker had rudely "helped" Logan leave Max's body behind that night. Max's blood could save Cindy: that much Logan knew. Unfortunately Logan couldn't get a hold of her blood, and didn't know how to get a hold of any other transgenic blood.

"… and we just gotta stick together, like brothers, for our sister Cindy. We must not be in this room with negative thoughts, or it will do her more harm than good. If you are in this room, your head must be filled with positive thoughts only. Mister Logan, sir, are your thoughts in a proper state?" Logan gathered that he had chosen just the right time for him to tune back in to the world around him.

Slowly he nodded, though deep down he knew he was lying to himself and everyone around him. "She'll be alright." He managed to mumble, nodding again. "She's a tough cookie, Cindy is." Logan's mind wandered back to Max before he finished his next sentence, "She'll pull through anything and everything life throws at her, I'm sure of it." He said, and gave a slight stroke to Cindy's hand, before walking straight out of the room and out of the hospital without saying another word to anyone else.

Driving away in his car, he knew that if he wanted to save Max's friend, he had to think like Max. And he couldn't think of a better way to do so than to head over to the Space Needle, to get on top of the world. It always seemed to help Max out, so what if Logan was terrified of heights?

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_Sorry about this wait, everyone, I'm terrible, I know! Also, I think I may stop these post-chapter commentaries soon._


	10. Disguise

_**AN:** I know, I know... I should be working on Terminally Tainted, because this one just got updated in March, and TT hasn't been updated since what... December? Unfortunately I've typed myself into an impassable hole... But hopefully now that school's out I'll be able to work my way out of it soon!_

_**Disclaimer:** The people, places, and terms in this do not belong to me, simply the order in which they appear and how I use and abuse the characters to my own ends. Those are mine._

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Max's body was still limp. Lifeless. Strapped down to a bed. Again. Too many times had she woken up, immobilized as one with the bed below her. Her seizures had stopped now, simply because her body didn't have the energy, and the sector police had injected her with a sedative. So even if her muscles wanted to twitch, they couldn't, which was a pleasant change from the constant convulsions she'd been experiencing for the past two days. It allowed her eyelids to move steadily enough for her to see straight—er.

Her eyes wandered slowly around the room, her vision adding an annoying blurred edge to everything, hindering her from telling one object from another. She tried to lift her head and barely managed to identify that she was surrounded by hospital equipment, but not yet in a hospital, before her weakened muscles dropped her head back down onto the hard surface below her. Her breathing was labored, raspy, without any device to try and help it. These sector police obviously didn't care about her health that much, but more about her solitude. Solitude was all well and good, when one wasn't near-death. She mustered up all the energy in her body and soul and called out in a whisper, "Alec…" and relapsed into a panting heap on the gurney.

The sector police paramedic up front of the ambulance didn't hear her, didn't register her consciousness. He was far too caught up in his rapid conversation with some check point workers up ahead to notice. Max heard his voice but couldn't understand nor register the words coming out of his mouth. Never before had she felt so weak, not even when she lived with Lucy. These seizures had brought her down to a new level of helplessness. She felt like she was dying all over again – then what good was even escaping in the first place? As strong as her will was, her body betrayed her and lay there, limp, while small moaning noises sporadically and uncontrollably seeped from her throat.

Alec, in a separate ambulance, was in the very same predicament as Max, only he wasn't weakening. He was growing stronger as the sedative wore off and his anger and panic grew. True, he and Max barely knew each other or even got along, but that didn't mean he didn't care. He cared… at least about their transgenic blood being found out, if not for Max on a slightly deeper level. Alec's fingers frantically felt up and down the bindings holding him down, and he just willed the straps to not make too much noise. He guessed right off the bat that he was in an ambulance, but where this ambulance was heading, he didn't want to wait to find out. And more than anything he didn't want to be as helpless as he was now when they did get to their destination.

After a few minutes of struggling, combined with the bouncing he was subjected to down the decomposing road, Alec managed to loosen the straps binding his left hand down. And luckily there wasn't a second paramedic riding in the back with him like he thought one ought to do, for exactly this reason. Oh well, he figured they hadn't been prepared for such clever patients. With one conveniently free hand, he quickly released himself from the rest of his bindings and lay there, surveying his options and weapons. Moments later he was crouched near the front, near the small window, through which he could tell they were following another ambulance. He hoped Max was in that one. He noted that they were slowing down and pulling into a hospital parking lot. Good. They undoubtedly had stores of tryptophan somewhere in this building.

Without warning, the back doors to his ambulance were suddenly ripped open; he hadn't noticed the ambulance stop. Two men in full body suits were standing there, waiting to unload the gurney Alec was supposed to be tightly attached to. He had just enough time to note the surprise on each of their faces before he struck, lunging forward with large needles in each hand, as he wildly spun around. The sector paramedics ducked for safety and by the time they looked up, Alec was running at a full revved up sprint toward the ambulance in front of them, which was just unloading the gurney. Expecting to see Max laying there unconscious, he saw an old man, seizing as bad as Max had been, getting rushed into the hospital. Looking around, he realized there were at least 4 other ambulances coming in around them, and the sector paramedics were headed straight for him. He'd lost Max. Time to create a back-up plan.

Taking off after the old man's gurney, he made it inside the building at a full sprint and kept running, scaring the nurses and doctors as he went. Several panicked minutes later, he found himself in a dark storage room, four stories up, near a stairwell that he knew lead to the roof. This was not, however, the medicine storage room he'd been looking for. This was better than nothing, and he was digging through all the boxes around him with silent, agile fingers, as he struggled to keep his breathing under control and his terror out of his mind. Off in one of the back boxes, barely out of sight, he found some scrubs. Old, probably very outdated, but he bet he'd fit in enough, and they had a collar. Excellent. He also found some old pills, dusty and some brand he'd never heard of (not surprising, really, for a sheltered boy such as he), in that same box, along with an official-looking clipboard. It looked to him like a nurse had been smuggling drugs out of the hospital before. But, Alec had been raised to be suspicious of everything.

Stepping out of the room in his scrubs, old pills and clipboard in hand, he headed down the halls at a much more appropriate pace and feel. Unfortunately, this was short-lived when his panic peaked again as he ran into a nurse around his first corner, a young female one. She was short and blond, fairly attractive, and talking to him. Talking. To him. Great.

"Sorry, ma'am… miss…" he looked in at her name badge and smiled, "Adams, Miss Adams. My apologies again, I was in a hurry and I'm kind of new here. You know, brought in for the emergency and all," he said, going with things he'd heard while in that storage closet.

Miss Adams just nodded and smiled, "Don't worry sir, it's not the first time this has happened. Why don't you tell me where you're trying to go to and I can help you out?" she said politely, totally falling for his guise.

Feigning deep thought, he stared at the clipboard, not understanding any of the technical lingo on it before he looked up. "The medicine storage room. Somehow this," he said, holding up the old box of pills, "found its way into a patient's room, I was told to store it with all your excess medicines." He improvised, acting and looking very much the part of a new and confused male-nurse.

Miss Adams looked at the box for a second and shook her head, "Wow, the things people get away with these days, I haven't seen pills like that in years. Anyways, you need to go down one floor and it is going to be on the right side of this hallway, I think 3 doors down from where we are now," she said, waving her arm up and down to show him, "and all the floors look exactly the same, just like this one. You can't miss it, I guarantee you. Is there anything else you might need help with?" She asked, her eyes staring up into his, trying to find out the secret behind this charming male-nurse. Something just didn't sit right with her about him, but she didn't know what.

"Erm… yeah. I don't really know how I got up here, but I was told to report to the incoming ambulance patients, after I dealt with the pills. Do you know how I can get to the unloading dock, er… incoming sick bay?" He asked very seriously, hoping his unprofessional terminologies wouldn't ruin his act.

Miss Adams laughed, "I think you misheard. No one gets to see them, not until they've been cleared from having Seizuritis and admitted." She rolled her eyes before continuing, "Can't have contagious people getting put in rooms with everyone else, you know." She said with a slight laugh again, "Paranoid. The lot of them." She said in a very slight British accent. "But anyways, they'll be down in quarantine, same level as the ICU rooms down on ground floor, but you won't be allowed in. You could always just… watch I guess, if you're an intern or something. I'm sorry, Mister… I didn't catch your name?" she asked, noting that he didn't have a name badge on his breast. There went her attempt at returning his formalities.

Alec nodded, "Don't worry Miss Adams, I understand, work calls. Thank you very much and I'll see you around," he said, heading toward the stair case. Turning back to see her still standing there, confused and staring, he said, "Oh by the way, it's Mister Gency," and then he whispered the last bit to himself, "Emer Gency." It was bad, even by Alec's standards. He rolled his eyes at himself as he pushed the stairwell door open and, as soon as he was out of sight, flew down the stairs at dangerous speeds.

While Alec was running around feeling physically fine, trying to find the tryptophan, his head ached with worry of what would happen to Max if he didn't get to her in time. The nurse had mentioned something called Seizuritis, which is why, he deduced, that old man on the gurney was seizing like a tryptophan-deprived transgenic. To the ignorant doctors around them, Max probably looked at least as sick as that man did, if not more-so.

Speaking of, Max was lying on a much softer bed than the ambulance gurney, though still strapped down, and trying hard to remember just how she had gotten from one place to the other. Her memory was getting worse now, to match her eyesight and hearing. She knew a doctor was in a full body contaminant suit, asking her questions, but her eyelids were heavy and falling, and she just mumbled a groan and remained silent. After a few minutes of this, the doctor got fed up and left, after injecting her with something else that she supposed was designed to make her feel better. It only made her more tired, and soon everything went black again.

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_See? I told you I was gonna stop commenting here._

_Like always, opinions and reviews and honesty appreciated!_  
_PS: Tell your friends!_


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